Sounds interesting! You have to love the internet. Looking at two sources, both of which I consider trustworthy, one says it’s known to reduce inflamation, etc, and the other source says there have been no studies that have shown any health benefits. LOL.
To clarify a bit more, here’s the source that says it might not actually do anything https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric#Medical_research and the wording they use isn’t exactly “no evidence”, but instead “no good evidence”.
I think this credible source link summarizes it pretty well. There’s a lot of possible positive outcomes associated with it, much research was rather shallow and inconsistent and more research is needed. There’s also a PubMed summary that sounds far more positive than this, but also explains that it probably won’t help with chronic pain. So the answer is as always: it depends.
Unfortunately this is complicated by the fact that turmeric is perhaps more likely than most spices to have lead contamination as not only is there the usual possibility of contaminated soil there is also a somewhat common practice of using lead chromate to dye it a brighter colour: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/abs/10.1289/isesisee.2018.P02.3490
This is indeed a big problem. I personally recommend getting an organic supplement by a company that subscribes to the GMP standard to minimise the chances of such occurrences but - there’s always a chance of malevolent interference.
I was honestly always skeptical about it. Last summer, when I was taking enough capsules to rival my very old residents at the nursing home, I decided to slim down my supplements to only stuff that’s good for me and is recommended by nutritionists. I cut out B-vitamin complexes as there are possibly links between B6, B12 and a quadruple increase in lung cancer risk for male smokers. I also cut out fish oil and substituted it with the way tamer hemp oil - my heart wasn’t really pleased with fish oil and the constant fish burps were awful. I also cut off L-Tyrosine, as the “effective” amount for ADHD and dopamine would be way higher in cost than I was willing to pay and the effects, if any at all, were just really minor.
Then I looked up what nutritionists and doctors say they take themselves. Apart from the always repeated Omega 3s in either animal or vegan sources, creatine and stuff like zinc, magnesium etc., turmeric/curcumin showed up quite a lot. One doc was the exception, who just said high quality local food and no supps at all, but judging by the salary he probably receives I reckon he can afford this 24/7/365. I actually began with a combination of organic curcumin, ginger powder and piperine and noticed no difference until the winter came: classmates as well as colleagues fell sick while I didn’t have any issues with being ill. And now, when some probably more contagious germ(s) got me, I just had about 3 to 4 days of actually being sick instead of the usual week to ten days.
Take my advice with a grain of salt - I am in no way a supplement or nutritional expert, but I am quite skeptical about most common used things but this convinced me. Of course, without a healthy active lifestyle and a balanced, varied diet no supp in the world can help you. They only enhance, they aren’t magic. As one old powerlifting book I used to read said very fittingly: “eating like shit but taking all the latest expensive supplements is like installing the most expensive and brightest lamps in an old, rundown cabin with leaky faucets, holes in the roof and mould on the walls. It sure looks pretty at night, but it doesn’t make any f##king sense!”. Thanks for listening to my TED talk 😅
No worries, I actually find it very beneficial to critically assess anything we ingest and not just go with “trust me, bro”. So far I only have my own anecdotal evidence. Sorry for info bombing you with so much text though!
Sounds interesting! You have to love the internet. Looking at two sources, both of which I consider trustworthy, one says it’s known to reduce inflamation, etc, and the other source says there have been no studies that have shown any health benefits. LOL.
Obligatory link: no evidence that using a parachute helps prevent injuries when jumping out of planes
To clarify a bit more, here’s the source that says it might not actually do anything https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric#Medical_research and the wording they use isn’t exactly “no evidence”, but instead “no good evidence”.
I think this credible source link summarizes it pretty well. There’s a lot of possible positive outcomes associated with it, much research was rather shallow and inconsistent and more research is needed. There’s also a PubMed summary that sounds far more positive than this, but also explains that it probably won’t help with chronic pain. So the answer is as always: it depends.
Unfortunately this is complicated by the fact that turmeric is perhaps more likely than most spices to have lead contamination as not only is there the usual possibility of contaminated soil there is also a somewhat common practice of using lead chromate to dye it a brighter colour: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/abs/10.1289/isesisee.2018.P02.3490
This is indeed a big problem. I personally recommend getting an organic supplement by a company that subscribes to the GMP standard to minimise the chances of such occurrences but - there’s always a chance of malevolent interference.
I was honestly always skeptical about it. Last summer, when I was taking enough capsules to rival my very old residents at the nursing home, I decided to slim down my supplements to only stuff that’s good for me and is recommended by nutritionists. I cut out B-vitamin complexes as there are possibly links between B6, B12 and a quadruple increase in lung cancer risk for male smokers. I also cut out fish oil and substituted it with the way tamer hemp oil - my heart wasn’t really pleased with fish oil and the constant fish burps were awful. I also cut off L-Tyrosine, as the “effective” amount for ADHD and dopamine would be way higher in cost than I was willing to pay and the effects, if any at all, were just really minor.
Then I looked up what nutritionists and doctors say they take themselves. Apart from the always repeated Omega 3s in either animal or vegan sources, creatine and stuff like zinc, magnesium etc., turmeric/curcumin showed up quite a lot. One doc was the exception, who just said high quality local food and no supps at all, but judging by the salary he probably receives I reckon he can afford this 24/7/365. I actually began with a combination of organic curcumin, ginger powder and piperine and noticed no difference until the winter came: classmates as well as colleagues fell sick while I didn’t have any issues with being ill. And now, when some probably more contagious germ(s) got me, I just had about 3 to 4 days of actually being sick instead of the usual week to ten days.
Take my advice with a grain of salt - I am in no way a supplement or nutritional expert, but I am quite skeptical about most common used things but this convinced me. Of course, without a healthy active lifestyle and a balanced, varied diet no supp in the world can help you. They only enhance, they aren’t magic. As one old powerlifting book I used to read said very fittingly: “eating like shit but taking all the latest expensive supplements is like installing the most expensive and brightest lamps in an old, rundown cabin with leaky faucets, holes in the roof and mould on the walls. It sure looks pretty at night, but it doesn’t make any f##king sense!”. Thanks for listening to my TED talk 😅
That all makes sense to me. Thanks.
No worries, I actually find it very beneficial to critically assess anything we ingest and not just go with “trust me, bro”. So far I only have my own anecdotal evidence. Sorry for info bombing you with so much text though!
Don’t be! Providing info is important when it comes to these things.